Fort Hood attacker's firing-squad execution to be livestreamed, Pentagon says
The Pentagon has said the execution by firing squad of the Fort Hood attacker will be livestreamed. No US military execution has been carried out since 1961, and one requires presidential approval.
The US Department of Defense, known as the Pentagon, has said that the execution by firing squad of the man who carried out the attack at Fort Hood will be livestreamed. The step would be highly unusual, as the US military has not carried out an execution in more than six decades. The source passage does not give an execution date.
What military law requires
Under military law, an execution needs approval from the US president. It also requires appellate review and a final judgment on its legality before it can go ahead.
The last military execution took place in 1961, when a US Army private was hanged after being convicted of raping an 11-year-old Austrian girl. President Dwight D Eisenhower authorised it, even though the victim's family had asked his successor, John F Kennedy, for clemency. The last military execution by firing squad was in January 1945, when Eddie Slovik, a young Army deserter, was shot during the final months of the Second World War.
Trump's record on the death penalty
President Donald Trump has never publicly advocated a public execution, but he has long supported the death penalty. In 1989 he took out large advertisements in The New York Times calling for the execution of the Central Park Five, who had been convicted of rape and assault but were later exonerated.
The US federal government carried out no executions for 17 years, until the final year of Trump's first term, when it conducted 13. After returning to office last January, Trump quickly overturned predecessor Joe Biden's moratorium on federal executions and signed an executive order aimed at "restoring" the death penalty and "protecting public safety".
